Gríðr: The Giantess Who Equipped Thor

“On his way Thor visited the giantess whose name is Grid. She was the mother of Vidar the Silent. She told Thor the truth concerning Geirrod, that he was a dog-wise and dangerous giant; and she lent him her own belt of strength and steel gloves, and her staff, which is called Gridarvol.”

“He buckled on the belt of strength and stemmed the wild torrent with Gridarvol, but Loke held himself fast in Megingjard.”

“He put the Gridarvol against the rafters, and pressed himself down against the seat.”

“When Thor came into the hall, and stood opposite Geirrod, the latter seized with a pair of tongs a red-hot iron wedge and threw it at Thor. But he caught it with his steel gloves, and lifted it up in the air.”

In Skáldskaparmál the poet Bragi tells how Thor went to the hall of the giant Geirröðr without his hammer, his belt of strength or his gloves, because Loki had sworn to lead him there so. On the way Thor visits the giantess Gríðr, mother of Víðarr. She tells him that Geirröðr is cunning and dangerous, and lends him her own belt of strength, iron gloves and her staff Gríðarvölr.

The staff carries him across the river Vimur, the greatest of rivers, which swells at the doing of Geirröðr’s daughter Gjálp. Later, in the giant’s hall, a chair rises under him toward the roof and he braces the staff against the rafters, breaking the backs of Gjálp and Greip beneath it. When Geirröðr throws a glowing iron wedge, Thor catches it in the gloves. The text gives Gríðr no home of her own and she does not appear again.

Gríðr is a giantess and, in Anderson’s glossary, the mother of the god Víðarr by Odin, the silent god who avenges his father at Ragnarök. The meaning of her name is not settled here. Her staff is called Gríðarvölr, which Anderson’s glossary renders “Grid’s staff”.

The same journey is the subject of a poem, Þórsdrápa, by the skald Eilífr Goðrúnarson, whose verses Anderson’s translation prints after the story. There the staff is named again, and the river Vimur and the giant’s daughters Gjálp and Greip appear. Nothing in these passages ties Gríðr’s dwelling to Jötunheimr or any other world.